Jericoacoara: nature and beauty

I'll try to briefly sum up my year and a half trip to Jericoacoara in Brazil, affectionately called "Jeri" by everyone. A Milan-Fortaleza flight via Recife of about ten and a half hours; I arrive at 3 in the morning in Fortaleza. Here you wait until 9 in the morning, when I buy the bus ticket that goes towards Jericoacoara (350 km north of Fortaleza, with about 200 inhabitants) for about 30 reais (10 euros); after 6 hours we are dropped off onto a truck converted into an open bus that takes us in an hour to Jeri across sand dunes that a normal bus couldn't cross.

The temperature here is always around 30 degrees all year round, with the warm trade wind that means you never really feel hot - for that matter, protect yourself in the first days! When I arrive, waiting for me in the little square (I remember that one peculiarity of Jeri is that its streets are all sand, there is no asphalt), there are Mery and her husband waiting to take me to the Pousada Peixe d'Ouro (which I booked online). A lovely pousada at a modest price (about 20 euros a day with breakfast), with little houses having a room, bathroom and a small sitting area, and hammocks in front to rest on when you come back from the sea. There is even a small pool for anyone who wants to use it. Mery, her husband and their adopted son are extremely kind and ready to help with anything you need; you can even eat with them if you ask in the morning for the evening.

I decided to stay in Jeri for 2 weeks (even though I had planned to spend the second week in São Luís); here I was able to appreciate all the positive and magical sides of this place. The incredible sunsets seen from the big white sand dune that skirts the village, the fun nights with capeta, caipirinha, caipiroska and beer at 1 euro a go. Sport with lovely horse rides and the capoeira class (my master Joao is legendary) at 8 in the morning on a deserted, endless beach; the afternoons at 5, when the beach came alive with people having an aperitif while watching the last of the sun, lads playing football, others doing capoeira with the local school, others riding past on horseback or jogging, improvised little kiosks on the beach serving drinks and food at rock-bottom prices to tourists and locals alike, people taking one last swim at sunset in warm water governed by the tides.

In the evening you can eat in one of the many little restaurants, dishes of fish or meat, pizza, at prices that go at most from 10 to 12 euros. You can dance at the Casa do Forró or the Mama Africa or join the parties organised on the beach. For lovers of wind and kite surfing it is a veritable paradise, the ideal place to practise, as the hundreds of tourists who come from all over the world show. It is really true that this place has "natureza e beleza", nature and beauty, an energy that grows as the day goes on until it explodes in the evening. You don't need to book a package holiday; just contact the countless pousadas available online to have a lovely guaranteed holiday! There is everything you could need, internet cafés, shops of every kind, without the beauty of the place being spoiled.

You can also take some excursions using buggies to the nearby Tatajuba, a freshwater lake amid the sand dunes 25 km from Jeri, where you can sunbathe, wind and kite surf and eat excellent freshly caught fish, or to Pedra Furada, or finally to Lagoa Azul and Lagoa Paraíso, which is again amid the dunes about 40 km from Jeri. Thank you Jeri for everything you gave me: sun, sea, food, fun, sport.....what more could you ask for?! If anyone wants, I have plenty of photos to show. Bye aldo